Keynote Records
Keynote Records was a record label founded by record store owner Eric Bernay in 1940. The label's initial releases were folk and protest songs from the Soviet Union and the Spanish Civil War, and several anti-war releases from American musicians followed. From 1943, the label released recordings in the jazz idiom produced by Harry Lim.
Keynote Records
- Name
- Keynote Records
- Headquarters
- United States
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Keynote Records was a record label founded by record store owner Eric Bernay in 1940. The label's initial releases were folk and protest songs from the Soviet Union and the Spanish Civil War, and several anti-war releases from American musicians followed. From 1943, the label released recordings in the jazz idiom produced by Harry Lim.
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Overview
Overview
The music critic John S. Wilson in 1965 described the company's jazz output as "an unusually valid reflection of the jazz spirits of the times." An unwise investment in a factory to manufacture records in 1947 led to the company becoming bankrupt in 1948, and came under the control of Mercury Records. During WWII, Keynote employed two Soviet spies: Irving Lerner and Arthur Adams (spy). Early in 1945, Bernay helped Adams elude FBI surveillance while taking his dog for a walk. The FBI picked up his trail in Chicago where he was seen boarding a train for the west coast accompanied by Bernay, a well-known Comintern agent. The Keynote jazz sessions were comprehensively reissued in 1986 when Nippon Phonogram/PolyGram released a 21 LP set with 115 previously unissued takes. Robert Palmer in The New York Times in October 1986 described it as "a much more substantial addition to the treasury of absolutely essential classic jazz performances than one could have expected or hoped for this late in the game." In 2013, a 11-CD set of Keynote jazz recordings was issued by the Spanish Fresh Sound label. Donald Clarke, writing about Lim's for Keynote, described him as knowing what he was doing and getting "good sound, with no gimmicks."
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Keynote Records • Founded — 1940 • Country — United States
Roster
Roster
• The Almanac Singers • George Barnes • Count Basie • Barney Bigard • Marc Blitzstein • Pete Brown • Cozy Cole • Corky Corcoran • Irving Fazola • Roy Eldridge • Bud Freeman • Paul Gonsalves • Johnny Guarnieri • Bill Harris • George Hartman • Ann Hathaway • Coleman Hawkins • Herbie Haymer • J.C. Heard • Neal Hefti • Earl Hines • Milt Hinton • Danny Hurd • Clyde Hurley • Chubby Jackson • Jonah Jones • Kansas City Seven • The Keynoters • Mannie Klein • Bernie Leighton • Al Menconi • Benny Morton • Ted Nash • Red Norvo • Paul Robeson • Earl Robinson • Red Rodney • Harold Rome • Arnold Ross • Babe Russin • Gene Sedric • Charlie Shavers • Willie Smith • Rex Stewart • Billy Taylor • Joe Thomas • Juan Tizol • Lennie Tristano • Dinah Washington • George Wettling • Josh White • Lester Young
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Identity
Keynote Records is associated with United States.
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- United States
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Ronald D. Cohen, "Keynote Records". In Frank W. Hoffmann and Howard Ferstler, Encyclopedia of Recorded Sound, Volume 1. 2004, p. 571. (Google Books)
- 2.Wilson, John S. When Jazz Was Going From Swing to Be-Bop. The New York Times. 330. December 19, 1965.
- 3.Pantheon Books. Living With Jazz: A Reader. 958. 2004. 9780307487605.
- 4.Haynes, John Earl. Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. Yale University Press. 1999-01-01. 0300129874.
- 5.Miklitsch, Robert. The Red and Black" American Film Noir in the 1950s. University of Illinois Press. 2017.
- 6.University of California, Berkeley. Atomic Heritage Foundation.
- 7.Reader, The MIT Press. The Untold Story of the First U.S.-Based Nuclear Spy, and How He Got Away With It. The MIT Press Reader. 2024-04-18.
- 8.Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music - KEYNOTE. www.donaldclarkemusicbox.com.
- 9.Harrington, Richard. Best of the Boxes. The Washington Post. December 21, 1986.
- 10.Palmer, Robert. Boxed Sets: Pop Music's Melting Pot. The New York Times. October 12, 1986.
- 11.Billboard review. Billboard. 39.
- 12.CD Recommendation: The Keynote Box | Rifftides. Artsjournal.com.
- 13.Reissue of the year. Jazz Weekly.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
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